OMB Sides With City of Burlington in Development Appeal

The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) has upheld Burlington city council’s decision to refuse a development proposal.

The City of Burlington “has successfully defended its position to protect stable residential neighbourhoods in our community,” said city manager James Ridge.

It’s in the south end.

The proposal is for 35 townhomes and four semi-detached homes on Blue Water Place and Avondale Court, near Lakeshore and Shoreacres roads.

First Urban Inc. put for the application for 143 Blue Water Place.

The applicant modified the proposal before the OMB, to seek approval of a rezoning and a site plan to permit 28 three-storey town house units, all with at grade parking.

The decision was released on July 11 following an OMB - it’s been renamed the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal, or LPAT-hearing two months prior.

“The complex of factors related to compatibility combine in this case to not satisfy the [Official Plan] criteria,” reads the LPAT decision.

“The proposal’s massing, scale and buffering do not achieve a suitable transition, are found to be incompatible with the ‘features of the neighbourhood’ and result in a built form that creates unacceptable adverse impacts related to privacy, overlook and sense of open space.”

Council voted in favour of the staff report, which recommended refusal of the development proposal at an Oct. 31, 2016 council meeting, on the basis that the development application didn’t fit the character of the neighbourhood.

“This type of development proposal in the city’s stable, low-density neighbourhoods does not meet the vision for how Burlington should be developed as it grows,” said Ridge.

“That is why significant documents like the recently adopted new Official Plan are so important in guiding how the city will look as it grows over time. The new Official Plan will help protect the character of established residential areas and direct growth to the areas around our mobility hubs.”

Burlington’s new Official Plan was adopted last April.

Through the new Official Plan, 50 per cent of the city will continue to be protected rural land; 34 per cent will remain established residential neighbourhoods; 11 per cent will be land for employment and five per cent of the city will experience significant growth.